Bottle

ABSTRACT

A bottle comprising a shoulder, a bottle neck on which a pump can be mounted, and a cap which can be snapped thereon, thereby covering the shoulder and the bottle neck, and which has an upper opening in which a grip member of the pump is displaceably seated. The bottle neck is equipped on two diametrically opposed circumferential sections with undercuts and comprises laterally projecting attachments on diametrically opposed circumferential sections which are offset thereto by about 90°, each of said attachments being provided with a groove extending in the circumferential direction of the attachments or with a projection extending in circumferential direction. Two resilient arms are formed on the inside on the cap, and at least one circumferentially extending projection or at least one circumferentially extending groove is formed which can be locked with the grooves or projections of the attachments of the bottle neck.

This application claims priority to German Patent Application Serial No.10 2004 061 965.4, filed on Dec. 23, 2004.

The present invention relates to a bottle comprising a shoulder and abottle neck on which a pump can be mounted, and a cap which can besnapped onto the bottle, thereby covering the shoulder and the bottleneck, with an actuating grip member of the pump projecting at the topout of the cap.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Preferably, the bottle consists of an outer container and a rigid,dimensionally stable plastic material and a soft inner pouch whichreceives the contents of the bottle, preferably a liquid. The pump ispreferably an airless pump which sucks the contents of the container outof the soft inner pouch without permitting air to enter into the softinner pouch for pressure compensation, so that the pouch will contractmore and more during discharge of the contents of the container.Openings are provided in the outer container for pressure compensation.

The present invention, however, is not limited to such a bottle, but itcan also be applied to single-walled containers which are provided witha cap and a pump.

For operating a bottle of the kind in question, it must be ensured thatthe grip member of the pump, which in the vertical direction isdisplaceably seated in the upper opening of the cap, does not “lift off”the cap from the bottle upon its actuation (i.e., when being presseddown) for whenever, as is often the case in practice, the grip member isnot pressed by the user exactly in the vertical direction (i.e., in thedirection of the longitudinal axis of the bottle inwards), a lateralforce acts on the cap that causes a torque which may lead to adetachment of the cap from the bottle, so that the pump is no longeroperative. The risk that the cap is “lifted off” is further enhanced incases where the grip member has an enlarged grip surface for comfortablehandling, the grip surface projecting beyond the shaft of the gripmember which is displaceably received in the covering cap, so that theabove-mentioned torque is created almost automatically by the depressionof the grip member, such torque tending to lift off the covering capfrom the bottle on the side opposite to the projecting part of the gripmember.

EP810036A2 discloses a bottle including a shoulder and a bottle neck,the cap being adapted to be snapped onto the bottle, which cap coversthe shoulder and the bottle neck and has an upper opening for adisplaceable grip member of the pump. The closure cap is provided on itsinside with locking projections which extend in circumferentialdirection and project approximately radially inwards and which in themounted state can be snapped into a correspondingly shaped lockinggroove on the container neck.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a bottle of thetype in question, in the case of which it is ensured that the cap is notdetached from the bottle by the operation of the pump.

Said object is achieved according to the invention by the features ofpatent claim 1. Advantageous developments of the invention arecharacterized in the dependent claims.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention, the bottle neck is equipped on twodiametrically opposed circumferential sections with undercuts andcomprises laterally projecting attachments on circumferential sectionswhich are also diametrically opposed and are offset thereto by about90°, each of said attachments being provided with at least one grooveextending in the circumferential direction, and that two resilient armsare formed on the inside on the cap, the resilient arms being adapted tobe snapped in with molded-on hooks below the undercuts, and at least onecircumferentially extending surrounding projection or at least twoseparate projection sections are formed which can be locked with thegrooves of the attachments of the bottle neck. The arrangement of thegrooves and of the projection or of the projecting sections can also bechosen the other way around, so that the radially projecting attachmentsof the bottle neck may be provided with circumferentially extendingprojections which lock into a corresponding groove or groove sections inthe inside of the cap when the cap is snapped onto the bottle.

Advantageously, the bottle has an oval shape when viewed from the top(i.e., it is oval in each cross section perpendicular to thelongitudinal direction) and the dimensions of the bottle cancontinuously decrease in size from the upper edge and from the loweredge towards the center, so that the bottle is not only given a verypleasant shape, but can also be gripped comfortably and reliably whenthe pump is operated. In this case, the cap also shows an oval shape,which is also true for its upper opening and the grip member of the pumpslidably guided therein, which projects in the direction of thelongitudinal axis of the grip member beyond the shaft thereof.

With great advantage, the attachments of the bottle neck extend in thedirection of the longitudinal sides of the bottle, whereas the tworesilient arms of the cap grip below the undercuts of the bottle neck onthe narrow sides of the bottle. The holding force of the resilient armsis supplemented according to the invention by the engagement of theprojections, which extend in the longitudinal direction of the cap, intothe correspondingly arranged grooves of the laterally projectingattachments of the bottle neck (or the reverse arrangement thereof), sothat a surprisingly great holding force is created while the cap caneasily be mounted on the bottle, so that the cap is not lifted off fromthe bottle even upon a strong eccentric operation of the pump. Theengagement of the two circumferentially extending projections of the capinto the circumferentially extending grooves of the attachments of thebottle neck ensures that, with the normally arising forces, the capcannot be turned about the short axis of the oval cross-sectional shapesuch that it gets detached from the bottle. The torques which areoperative around the longitudinal axis of the oval cross-sectional shapeupon operation of the pump are at any rate small and do also not cause adetachment of the cap from the bottle.

In further details of the invention, it is suggested that theattachments are formed on both the bottle neck and the shoulder andextend almost up to the edge of the shoulder. Preferably, theattachments are recessed by a wall thickness of the cap. The grooves ofthe attachments (or with a reverse arrangement of groove/projection: theprojections of the attachments) are preferably directly formed above theshoulder, so that the shoulder forms the lower groove wall.

Furthermore, it is suggested that each of the attachments should extendover a circumferential portion of the bottle neck of about 90°, acircumferential portion of the same order being also suggested for theundercuts.

According to a further proposal of the invention, the upper edge stripof the bottle is recessed in the form of a step approximately by thewall thickness of the cap, and the cap in the snapped-on condition restswith its edge on the surrounding step of the bottle, which also helps toreliably secure the cap to the bottle. Moreover, the arrangement of thebottle and cap obtains a very pleasant continuous outer contour and cancomfortably be held by the user in his/her hand during operation of thepump.

The bottle and the cap are made from a plastic material such aspolypropylene or PP, which is also true for the grip member of the pump.

BRIEF DESRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further details of the invention become apparent from the followingdescription of a preferred embodiment and with reference to the drawing,in which:

FIGS. 1A and 1B show two side views rotated by 90° of a bottle accordingto the invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are enlarged illustrations of the shoulder and neckportion of the bottle according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an illustration, cut in part, of a cap which can be snappedonto the bottle and has a grip member inserted therein of a pumpengaging into the bottle; and

FIGS. 4A and 4B are longitudinal sections offset by 90° relative to eachother and taken through the cap.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many differentforms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described indetail several specific embodiments, with the understanding that thepresent disclosure is to be considered merely an exemplification of theprinciples of the invention and the application is limited only to theappended claims.

The plastic bottle 1 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B consists of adimensionally stable outer container and an inner pouch (not visible inthe figures) made from a soft flexible plastic material. The outercontainer has an oval cross-sectional shape, the cross-sectionaldimensions decreasing from the upper edge and from the lower edge of theouter container towards the center such that the outer contours have thearcuate shape shown in the figures.

The outer container 1 is equipped on its upper edge with a step-shapedrecessed edge section 2 which passes into the shoulder 3 of thecontainer from which a neck bottle 4 extends. The neck bottle 4 hasundercuts 5 on two diametrically opposed portions facing the short sidesof the container, each of the undercuts 5 extending around approximatelya quarter of the circumferential portion of the bottle neck 4. The twoother portions that are also diametrically opposed have formed thereonlaterally projecting protrusions 6 on the bottle neck 4 and on theshoulder 3, each of the protrusions 6 being provided directly above theshoulder 3 with a groove 7 extending in the longitudinal direction ofthe projections 6. Preferably, the attachments 6 are recessed by a wallthickness of the cap 8. The grooves 7 of the attachments 6 (or with areverse arrangement of groove/projection: the projections of theattachments) are preferably directly formed above the shoulder 3, sothat the shoulder forms the lower groove wall. Furthermore, each of theattachments may extend over a circumferential portion of the bottle neckof about 90°, a circumferential portion of the same order being alsosuggested for the undercuts.

FIG. 1A shows a side view of the longitudinal side of the container 1and reveals that the projections 6 extend along the longitudinal side ofthe container 1. The shoulder 3 of the container virtually forms thelower groove wall of the grooves 7. FIG. 3 is a partly cut illustrationof a cap 8 which can be snapped at the top onto the container 1, with anairless pump 9 being arranged therein, which is connected to a gripmember 10. The grip member 10 is seated with a shaft section 11 (lowershaft section 11 in the illustration of FIG. 3) in an upper opening 12of the cap in which the shaft 111 is displaceably guided. The shaft 111passes into an actuation section 13 which projects above all in alongitudinal direction of the oval cross-sectional shape of the cap 8and the bottle 1 beyond the shaft 11.

FIG. 4A shows a cross-section through the approximately bell-shaped cap8 which on its lower edge has an edge section 14 enlarged in the form ofa step, which tightly encloses the edge strip 2 of the container 1 inthe snapped-on condition of the cap 8. The cap 8 is provided directlybefore the step 14 on the inside with a surrounding annular projection15 which locks into grooves 7 of the projections 8 of the bottle neck 4.In the embodiment shown in the drawings, the cap also shows an ovalcross-sectional shape, which is also true for its upper opening and thegrip member of the pump slidably guided therein, which projects in thedirection of the longitudinal axis of the grip member beyond the shaftthereof.

Moreover, two diametrically opposed resilient arms 16 are molded on theinside onto the cap 8, the resilient arms 16 gripping with hook-like,inwardly oriented projections 17 at their lower ends below the undercuts5 of the bottle neck 4 when the cap 8 is snapped onto the bottle 1.

The cooperation of the engagement of the annular projection 15 of thecap 8 into the grooves 7 of the projections 6 with the undercuts 5 beinggripped from below by the hook-like projections 17 of the resilient arms16 has the consequence that the cap 8 can be reliably secured to thebottle 1 so that the pump 9 can always be actuated by the grip member10. In particular, the holding force of the resilient arms 16 issupplemented according to the invention by the engagement of theprojections 17, which extend in the longitudinal direction of the cap 8,into the correspondingly arranged grooves 7 of the laterally projectingattachments of the bottle neck 4 (or the reverse arrangement thereof),so that a surprisingly great holding force is created while the cap caneasily be mounted on the bottle, so that the cap is not lifted off fromthe bottle even upon a strong eccentric operation of the pump. Theengagement of the two circumferentially extending projections of the capinto the circumferentially extending grooves of the attachments of thebottle neck ensures that, with the normally arising forces, the capcannot be turned about the short axis of the oval cross-sectional shapesuch that it gets detached from the bottle. The torques which areoperative around the longitudinal axis of the oval cross-sectional shapeupon operation of the pump are at any rate small and do also not cause adetachment of the cap from the bottle.

In a preferred embodiment, the bottle and the cap are made from aplastic material such as polypropylene or PP, which is also true for thegrip member of the pump.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the upperedge strip of the bottle may be recessed in the form of a stepapproximately by the wall thickness of the cap, and the cap in thesnapped-on condition rests with its edge on the surrounding step of thebottle, which also helps to reliably secure the cap to the bottle.Moreover, the arrangement of bottle and cap obtains a very pleasantcontinuous outer contour and can comfortably be held by the user inhis/her hand during operation of the pump.

It will be understood that modifications and variations may be effectedwithout departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the presentinvention, but it is understood that this application is limited only bythe scope of the appended claims.

1. A bottle comprising a shoulder and a bottle neck on which a pump canbe mounted, and a cap which can be snapped onto the bottle, therebycovering the shoulder and the bottle neck, and which has an upperopening in which a grip member of the pump is displaceably seated,wherein the bottle neck is equipped on two diametrically opposedcircumferential sections with undercuts and comprises laterallyprojecting attachments on diametrically opposed circumferential sectionswhich are offset thereto by about 90°, each of said attachments beingprovided with at least one groove extending in the circumferentialdirection of the attachments or with at least one projection extendingin circumferential direction, and and wherein two resilient arms areformed on the inside on the cap, the resilient arms being adapted to besnapped in with molded-on hooks below the undercuts, and at least onecircumferentially extending projection or at least one circumferentiallyextending groove is formed which can be locked with the grooves orprojections of the attachments of the bottle neck.
 2. The bottleaccording to claim 1, wherein the bottle has an oval shape when viewedfrom the top and that the attachments of the bottle neck extend in thedirection of the longitudinal sides of the bottle.
 3. The bottleaccording to claim 1, wherein the attachments are molded onto both thebottle neck and the shoulder and extend almost up to the edge of theshoulder.
 4. The bottle according to claim 1, wherein the grooves of theattachments are directly formed above the shoulder.
 5. The bottleaccording to claim 1, wherein each of the attachments extends over acircumferential portion of the bottle neck of about 90°.
 6. The bottleaccording to claim 1, wherein each of the undercuts extends over acircumferential portion of the bottle neck of about 90°.
 7. The bottleaccording to claim 1, wherein the bottle comprises an upper edge stripthat is recessed in the form of a step approximately by the wallthickness of the cap, and that the cap rests in snapped-on conditionwith its edge on the surrounding step of the bottle.
 8. The bottleaccording to claim 1, wherein the bottle and the cap are made from aplastic material such as polypropylene.
 9. A bottle for dispensing aliquid comprising: an outer container comprising a shoulder and a bottleneck on which a pump can be mounted, the bottle neck comprises twodiametrically opposed sections with undercuts and two diametricallyopposed laterally projecting attachments having means for attaching tothe cap; and a cap comprising two resilient arms formed inside the caps,wherein the resilient arms are adapted to engage the undercuts and meansfor attaching to the laterally projecting attachments.
 10. The bottle ofclaim 9 wherein, the means for attaching the cap to the laterallyprojecting attachments comprising at least one circumferentiallyextending groove and the means for attaching to the cap comprises atleast one projection extending in the circumferentially direction. 11.The bottle of claim 9, wherein the means for attaching the cap to thelaterally projecting attachments comprises at lease one projectionextending in the circumferential direction and the means for attachingto the cap comprises at least one circumferentially extending groove.12. The bottle according to claim 9, wherein the bottle has an ovalshape when viewed from the top and that the attachments of the bottleneck extend in the direction of the longitudinal sides of the bottle.13. The bottle according to claim 9, wherein the attachments are moldedonto both the bottle neck and the shoulder and extend almost up to theedge of the shoulder.
 14. The bottle according to claim 11, wherein theat least one circimferientially extending groove is formed above theshoulder.
 15. The bottle according to claim 9, wherein each of theattachments extends over a circumferential portion of the bottle neck ofabout 90°.
 16. The bottle according to claim 9, wherein each of theundercuts extends over a circumferential portion of the bottle neck ofabout 90°.
 17. The bottle according to claim 9, wherein the bottlecomprises a upper edge strip that is recessed in the form of a stepapproximately by the wall thickness of the cap, and that the cap restsin snapped-on condition with its edge on the surrounding step of thebottle.
 18. The bottle according to claim 9, wherein the bottle and thecap are made from a plastic material such as polypropylene.